Before You Put Your App in the Windows Phone Store

Make Sure You Spend the Time to Make a Quality App

You only have a limited time at the top of the new list. I learned this one from Alex and Luis at Neuralnet, and I still try to follow it. (Screaming Sheep is the one exception.)

Include Multiple Ad Networks

If you are going to include ads in your app, don’t rely on just PubCenter, or your app will have an empty black bar part of the time. I like AdDuplex for cross-marketing apps.

Sign Up for the Nokia Premium Developer Program

It’s going to cost you $99 to get your app in the Windows Phone Store anyway, so you might as well sign up for the Nokia Premium Developer Program and get the $1500 in benefits that Nokia throws in for the same $99.

Sign Up for a DVLUP Account

You’ve done the work, so you might as well get some DVLUP credit from Nokia.

Follow (and Get Followed by) the Big Names in the Windows Phone World on Twitter

I have 39 followers, but one of my followers has over 2900. Getting a retweet from him goes a long way, especially since many of his followers are Windows Phone users and developers. Thanks, Bill Reiss.

Create Your Own Blog

It may not get a lot of traffic, but it gives you somewhere to provide more information and pictures for your apps. You can also provide download links for paid and free versions of your apps from a single page. You can see an example by clicking here.

Use a URL-Shortening Service

It allows you to track the effectiveness of your advertising and see where clicks are coming from. It also makes posting a link to your app via Twitter or Facebook much easier. I use bitly.

Make It Easy for Your Customers to Help You

Include menu options to contact you, upgrade, rate, and share your app. Also, include ways for customers to find your other apps. Most of all, include a rating reminder pop-up, because many customers still won’t tap a menu to rate your app. The RadRateApplicationReminder control from Telerik (which you should already have, since you signed up for the Nokia Premium Developer Program already) works really well.

Create a Help Page

A help page gives you more room to explain how your app works and to provide a better experience for your customers. Once you create it, you can easily use it in all of your apps.

It also gives you a place to let customers know about your other apps. I am planning to make this a dynamic list using Azure services, since my app count is growing more quickly now.